Teachers working together to improve student achievement in reading and writing

Reading Assessment

December 08, 2007

“It’s great that kids do all this reading and that teachers do all this conferencing, but when do I get something to grade?”

I get this question, or a variation of it, all the time. It probably comes from that part of us that says kids aren’t really working unless they have work to turn in. Another part simply reflects the reality that standards-based teaching is driven by the need for assessable products.

December 04, 2007

One reason reading is hard to learn is because it’s hard to teach. Some people devote their entire lives to understanding what reading is, what good readers do, and how to teach these things effectively to kids. But most of us don’t have that kind of time. So I’ve found something simple that helps me a lot. It’s a model of reading instruction and assessment based on six qualities of good reading that I can teach to every kid I work with.